The Natural Sage
by Frank Kemp
Summary: In his attempt to become a ninja, Naruto took to observing others as they trained. What he found, is that every ninja can walk up walls. In his attempt to recreate the action, Naruto devised his own way of wall walking. Everything else just fell into place. ( Sage Naruto. Strong. Seals later. More clever than smart.)
1. Chapter 1

Natural Sage.

In his attempt to become a ninja, Naruto took to observing others as they trained. What he found, is that every ninja can walk up walls. In his attempt to recreate the action, Naruto devised his own way of wall walking. Everything else just fell into place. ( Sage Naruto. Strong. Seals later. More clever than smart.)

"Hi. I don't own Naruto" - Speech

'That is called slavery, and is in fact frowned upon.' - Thought

* * *

On the first day of the second year of the academy, Naruto saw something that defied logic. A person walking up a wall. Or down a wall, in this case. Naturally curious, he strolled over to the obviously awesome ninja and asked how he did it.

"Hey you! Yeah, you! How did you do that!" Said ninja answered, without missing a beat, or looking up from his book. "Chakra." And walked away.

'Chakra? I can use that!' Naruto thought to himself. Excited about being able to be even more awesome in his own eyes, he ran off to do just that. Climb a tree with only chakra. Shouldn't be too hard.

Taking a running start to the neared tree, Naruto pumped as much chakra as he could to his feet, to stick the landing. And proceeded to blast himself a solid 5 yards away. And he did this again. 3 yards. And again. 4 yards. He repeated the exercise in futility until he was bruised and hungry, but got no further up the now splintered bark.

After a long day of frustration and duty, there is nothing that Sarutobi loved more, than to sit back with a filled his pipe as he gazed at the coming sunset from his office window. So when a bruised Naruto busted down his door, he had to suppress a sigh.

Taking one more merciful drag, The Professor tapped out his pipe and turned his attention to his charge. "Can I help you Naruto?" "You bet old man! I have a question? I saw this super cool ninja walk up a wall. I mean like strait up it, or down it really. He was all ' I'm so awesome, gravity changes for me! So i tried to do the same thing, but i just keep blasting the poor tree to death. How's am I supposed to do it?

Sarutobi's aged face grew stern. "While I'm glad that you are trying to better yourself, what you did was incredibly dangerous. Especially without supervision. Not to mention wall walking is a chakra control exercise that is too advanced for you right now. Most people start out with the leaf exercise." At that, Naruto groaned. "Not that boring thing. I can never get it right. Every time I try, the stupid leaf gets blasted away." "Well, have you tried to visualize your chakra like a suction cup?"

Seeing the confused look on his face, Sarutobi guessed not. "It is simple sounding, but it takes a while to get the hang of it. When I first tried it, it took me almost a month to master it completely. Here." reaching over to the window sill, Sarutobi grabbed a leaf that drifted into the room. "Put this on your forehead and concentrate on sticking it to yourself using only our chakra."

Scrunching up his face in concentration, Naruto did just that, and it held for about three seconds. "Did you see that old man? I did it!" Naruto shouted. Sarutobi smiled. "Now keep doing that till you can keep a leaf on your head for thirty minutes. Once you do that, It will become second nature to you. Then you can try the wall walking again, Okay?" "You got it! Thanks old man!" Naruto shouted with glee as he bolted out the door, hunting for more leafs.

Sarutobi leaned back in his chair and re-filled his pipe. 'Always something new with that boy, right Minato?'

-Break A few months later.

"No, no, no, no, no! Why can't I get this!?" Naruto sat in his house, glaring at the leaf on his palm. 'No matter how hard I try, I can't get it to stick for long.' In the three month period that he dedicated to mastering this exercise, his longest leaf stick time was just over ten minutes.

Deciding to do something a bit more productive, Naruto set about his quarterly house cleaning. Slipping the damned leaf into his pocket, he set about cleaning his home.

"Stupid.*scrub*Dumb.*scrub*Leaf.*scrub* Being difficult." Every other word was emphasized by his scrubbing of dishes. "Oh. You just need to be like a suction cup. *Scrub* It's easy. *rinse* I did it in a Freaking Month! *drain*. It's soo... so..." Naruto trailed off in his little tirade as he watched the water drain from his sink, creating a vortex that sucked the sponge down and in. 'Simple. That's it! That's what I'm supposed to do. It's so simple.'

Bolting back to his living room, he pulled out his leaf and stuck it to his head again. However, this time, he visualized a vortex, just like the one in his sink. And it worked. Mostly. While there was a massive difference in difficulty, like beginner for the suction cup and hard mode for the vortex, the time that Naruto managed to keep the leaf up jumped from his paltry ten minutes, to just under 17 minutes. Naruto exhausted himself by spent the rest of the night trying to reach that thirty minute mark for his mastery.

-break

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP B-* Blinking sluggishly, he though to himself. ' Ugh. I feel like crap.' Naruto smacked his lips and grimiest as he got out of bed. ' And my mouth tastes like crap. 'After getting rid of the horrible taste in his mouth and making himself breakfast, Naruto finally looked at the clock. 'Meh. I'm already super late for school. No bother hurrying.'

Taking the trail that passed some of the smaller training areas, he noticed something that he never paid any attention to before. Almost every person that he passed could, and did, walk up trees. Some even fought on the side of trees, almost as if they were mocking him with how easy they could do it. It did, however, pacify him that some of the younger people were still trying the leaf exercise.

Wanting to show off a little bit, Naruto walked right up to the girl that he spied that was having a hard time with the leaf exercise. "Hey. I bet I could do better than you. Wan'a see?" Before said girl could respond, Naruto picked up his leaf and stuck it on his head. Seeing the irritation on her face, Naruto decided on rubbing it in. "See? It's not even that hard."

"YOSH! YOU INDEED ARE DOING WELL WITH YOUR EXERCISE!" Naruto jumped at the loud voice that suddenly appeared next to him, and dropped the leaf. "HOWEVER, THIS YOUTHFUL EXERCISE REQUIRES THAT THE LEAF NOT MOVE. YOUR YOUTHFULL FIRES WILL BLAZE EVEN MORE ONCE YOU GET IT RIGHT!" Shouted the green beast that appeared at his side. Then, in a calmer voice the man said, " I would also be glad if you didn't show such a un-youthful attitude to my student." "Eh... I'll work on it and I'm sorry? I got to go anyway, so see ya!" With that, Naruto poured on the speed to distance himself from the green man. "SUCH YOUTH!"

\- Break

"NARUTO! YOUR LATE!" Iruka shouted as Naruto walked in the door. "I know. I woke up late and then had some green thing yell at me on my way here." Naruto remarked to Iruka. "I'll try not to do it again." "Alright then. But you have to stay in for lunch, to catch up on today's work." Naruto groaned as some of the class snickered at his misfortune.

A few minutes later, as everyone else went to lunch, Naruto asked Iruke, "Hey, you're a ninja. Could you show me how to do the leaf exercise again?" Seeing the question on Iruka's face, he continued. "I almost got it down, but this guy told me that the leaf wasn't supposed to move." Iruka smiled at that "Ah. I had the same problem at your age. You see it's about balance. Too much chakra, and the leaf moves. Too little and it wont stick. Sometimes, I add a bit of a back spin to keep it still. Most people forget that chakra always wants to spin just a bit. Usually in the same way your cow-lick is oriented. Do you understand?" " Ya. I think so." Naruto beamed at his teacher. "Thanks sensei. That really helped a lot." he smiled, backing out the door. "I'm glad it did. But you aren't getting out of class work, so sit back down." Naruto had enough shame to look just a bit guilty as he plopped back down. "Fine. What's next?"

-Break

After school, Naruto went straight back home to practice some more. 'Okay. Iruka said that I might need some back spin. I guess it's worth a shot.' Putting the leaf on his head for the umpteenth time, he started his vortex. After getting it good and stuck, he tried to visualize another vortex spinning the opposite direction. And it canceled each other out. It was like trying to look right and left at the same time. Growling, he tried again, but this time, visualized a smaller vortex in a bigger one. But that just shredded the leaf. After another hour of different ideas, Naruto all but gave up.

'What am I doing wrong? I put in the back spin. I'm trying as hard as I can.. Maybe... Maybe I need to try less?' After taking a few deep breaths, he tried again, with less chakra. Sitting back down, he put the leaf on his head and, instead of a fast spiral, visualized a calm spin, like a windmill in a gentle breeze. The pull was there, but it was a soothing pull, unlike his other, more violent attempts.

At the 26 minute mark, Naruto felt his toes start to go numb, but ignored it. At the 29 minute mark, he lost feeling in both his feet. 'My feet fell asleep. Great. Just a few more seconds, feet. I promise you can have your blood again. I just got to get this right. Almost. There. Done!' Opening his eyes, Naruto went to stretch out and get some feeling back where it was needed.

*thunk*

'What?' Looking down at his feet, Naruto gasped as he saw that they turned to stone! "AHHH! What the hell!' Naruto sat back down and started to rub his feet. As he did, he noticed that the stone was slowly fading away. ' Whoa. No wonder the old man said this was dangerous. I could have become a statue. I wonder why that happens?'

Sitting back down, Naruto tried again, but this time noticed the small trickle of chakra being sucked into his body from the leaf. Hardly noticeable, but it was there. It was different, but not in a bad way. It had a calm, clean, and almost 'green' feeling. Like the forest after it rains.

'I got to figure out how to filter that stuff out.' A sudden wave of drowsiness offer took him. 'That can wait for tomorrow.' And with that, Naruto went to bed.

Sarutobi just finished his last piece of business for the day, as ANBU agent BEAR appeared before his desk and bowed.

"My Lord. I have some news regarding the jailer's progress in the shinobi arts. The implications are staggering."

The God of Shinobi folded his fingers together, as he leaned forward.

"Proceed."

* * *

That's it for this chapter. Read and review.


	2. The Natural Sage Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"I'm sorry. Can you repeat yourself?" Sarutobi asked the ANBU member kneeling in front of his desk.

" Yes sir. The Jailer is practicing a new form of the leaf exercise. After observing for a while, I decided that I had the right understanding of his new exercise. Instead of forming a suction cup, like the original, he forms a layered series of vortex's, both going opposite directions. I have tried this myself and found that it is quite taxing. For it's chakra usage and shape manipulation alone, I would rank this as a high C-rank chakra exercise. However, just like the boy, if I held it for too long, I could feel my body shifting." The agent lifted his left hand to show the nail on his pinky was stone. "However, unlike the Jailer, I did not shift back. I suspect that his resilience comes from his 'lineage'. The margin for error is nonexistent, and in my opinion, makes this exercise potentially forbidden." Sarutobi drew in a long, deep breath to calm his nerves.

After a second, he turned to BEAR. "I want you to postpone this training that you picked up, and not spread this information with anyone else. This is now an B-rank secret, until further notice. Dismissed." With a slight blur, BEAR was gone.

Taking out his pipe, Sarutobi didn't so much as twitch as a voice appeared behind him." So. It looks like I'm going to have to meet the little squirt sooner than expected."

"You are correct, of course. And would it kill you to use a door once in a while?"

The Toad Sage chuckled. "Almost did once. Not taking any more chances."

"Joking aside" Sarutobi continued. "I thought that the only way to tap into Natural chakra was with the sage oil. You told me that yourself."

"No." Jiryia rebuked." I said that it was easiest with the oil. After all, Tsunade is a Sage, and Orochimaru can partly turn into a Sage, and neither of them has ever even caught a whiff of the stuff. To be a sage, you just have to learn to use Natural chakra. Anyway, I'm going to stick around for a while just too keep an eye on things around here. The brat is crossing uncharted waters, after all. Wouldn't want to find him ship-wrecked, now would we? Mind giving me a mask, old man? For old time's sake?"

Sarutobi smiled. "Sure thing, I got just the one." Unsealing a scroll, Sarutobi pulled out of the smoke the TOAD mask, and tossed it to Jiryia. "... You're kidding right?" Sarutobi just smiled wider. "I'm, so going to get you back for this, old man!" "Yes, yes. I'm sure I will rue this day. Now, don't you have some research to do?" Jiryia threw on a devilish grin. "As a matter of fact, I do. See ya old man!" he said as he jumped back out the window. "NOT THAT KIND OF RESEARCH!"

-Break

The next morning, Naruto was woken up by the sun, late in the morning. It was the weekend, and Naruto was not going to waste one more minute of it. Hurtling out of bed, he clothed himself in his white t-shirt and blue shorts and headed out to his favorite place in the whole village.

"Hey Teuchi ! How are you doing?" The old Ramen stand owner smiled. "Same as yesterday, Naruto. How 'bout yourself?" " I'm great. Better than ever. I got the leaf exercise down pat. Now I can try some of the harder stuff." "That's wonderful. How about a bowl, on the house?" "Really! Thanks!"

After a few more bowls, some nice conversation, and a round of good byes, Naruto decided that he should start work on his wall walking exercise. Finding an abandoned training field, Naruto tentatively place his foot on the side of a tree. After he felt his foot catch, he lifted his other foot to continue. And slipped.

'Wow' he thought while rubbing the bruise forming on his bottom. 'This is a lot harder than the leaf trick.' Scrunching up his face in thought, he came to a new conclusion. 'Maybe I need to try the leaf trick on my feet.' Taking off his sandals, Naruto walked over to a small pile of leaves, stood on them, alternating which foot he brought up, and trying to bring as many leaves as he could, up with his foot.

-break

ANBU Bird was on the rotation to watch the Jailer today, and was quite surprised at his progress from the last time he saw him, about a year ago. In fact, he made a mental note to ask the Hokage to implement this kind of exercise into the Shinobi Academy. Especially when concentrating and molding Chakra through the bottom of your foot was the hardest place to try. It was too useful, to not at least give it a try.

A few minutes into the Jailers exercise, Bird felt someone pulse there chakra as they landed next to him. Turning to face the newcomer, he couldn't help but feel a bit nervious. Sure, after spending an entire year out of the village, not knowing the new recruits was to be expected, but this new guy, TOAD apparently, was built like a bear and had his face, er... mask, right up in his personal space.

"Can i help you" BIRD asked, a little on edge. TOAD struck out lightning fast and snatched the mask right off of BIRD's face, and replaced it with his own. "The Hokage requires your report." The new 'BIRD' droned as he settled into place and returned his eyes to the Jailer. As the new 'TOAD', shaken and confused, stumbled off towards the Hokage's Tower, Jiryia smiled. 'Newbie'

Upon hearing cursing down below, Jiryia re-focused on Naruto, and saw his ear slowly turn back into flesh. 'The kid must have trouble mixing the Natural Chakra and his own.' he mused as the hours ticked by, content with watching. All the while making plans for Naruto's future growth.

A few days later, Naruto decided to bring up one of his problems to Iruka after school. "That's actually what I was going to review tomorrow with your class, Naruto. I'm sure that you can wait that long." "Come on. Can't you just give me a hint? I promise to pay extra attention tomorrow." Iruka leveled his gaze at the boy. "You should always pay attention." "But I never even learned this stuff to begin with. How am I expected to review what I never learned?" Iruka hung his head. 'Looks like I'm going to be late for my date.'

"Okay. I'll be brief; otherwise you will not pay attention." Ignoring the shout of indignation, Iruka plowed on. "The basic idea of getting rid of 'Different Chakra' as you put it, is simple. You disrupt it by flaring your chakra. This is the preferred way to displace 'alien' chakra, as it is fairly simple to do. By gathering your chakra and quickly pushing it into the air, you are essentially pushing the unwanted chakra out with your own. The down side is that if you are trying to evade capture, the flare can bring unwanted attention to yourself and you are wasting chakra. The other way is much harder to do, but reduces how much chakra you waist and is the overall best solution. By bringing all, or most, of your chakra to your core, and holding it in, even for a moment, brakes the 'alien' chakras hold on you. What most don't know, or care to remember, is that, if done correctly, you can grab hold of the other chakra and assimilate it. Or make it your own. This also has a down side, in that it is harder to do and requires an immense amount of control and concentration. The last way i don't advise to any student unless they are desperate. By sudden pain and injury, like stabbing yourself, you can jolt your chakra system, shaking loose the alien chakra. I'm sure I don't have to tell you the down sided on that one." Iruka paused to let this new information sink in. "Do you understand?"

Naruto's face had been changing as Iruka talked. Everything from confusion, to understanding, and everything in between. " I get it now! Thanks Iruka. I got to get going. Need to practice and stuff. Bye!" With that, Naruto tore down the hallway and back outside.

Iruka didn't even bat an eyelash at Naruto's departure. 'Looks like I need to talk to the Hokage about Naruto's prisoner, if he is asking questions like this.' Glancing at the clock, Iruka cringed. 'Anko is going to kill me.'

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